Arkansas, United States: Towns to Explore on Foot

Things to do in Arkansas range from exploring the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains to discovering the history of Little Rock and the broad agricultural landscapes of the Arkansas Delta. This landlocked state brings together forests, rivers, lakes, lowlands and growing cities, making it a varied destination within the United States. Neywo offers free audio guides for 3 cities in Arkansas, with 56 narrated places in total and 4 walking tours.

What to see and do in Arkansas

Arkansas is best understood through its landscapes and the stories connected to them. Different parts of the state have distinct identities, from mountain country in the northwest and west to the lowlands beside the Mississippi River in the east.

Explore the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains

The Ozark and Ouachita Mountains form part of the Southern Interior Highlands and give Arkansas some of its most distinctive scenery. They contrast with the flatter country farther south and east, where forests, fields and river lowlands shape the landscape.

For a small-town experience in the Ozarks, Eureka Springs is one of the Arkansas destinations covered by Neywo. Its narrated places include Mulladay Hollow Bridge and the Crescent Hotel, offering an introduction to the town through specific landmarks rather than a general overview.

The Ouachita region is represented on Neywo by Mena. The town’s narrated places include St. Agnes Catholic Church, Janssen Park and the Ebenezer Monument. Together, they provide a compact way to explore some of Mena’s historic and civic landmarks.

Follow Arkansas’s rivers and lowlands

Water is one of the state’s unifying features. The Arkansas, White and Saint Francis rivers are major tributaries of the Mississippi, while lakes and reservoirs appear throughout the state and along its borders. In the east, the Mississippi River lowlands and the Arkansas Delta create a landscape very different from the uplands.

The Delta is also closely associated with cotton farming. Cotton, soybeans and rice remain important crops, and Arkansas is the nation’s largest producer of rice, broilers and turkeys. Agriculture is only one part of the modern economy, but it continues to influence the state’s landscapes and identity.

Discover Arkansas’s forests

The densely forested country in the south is known as the Arkansas Timberlands. Forestry remains important there, particularly softwood lumber production. These forests add another layer to the state’s geography, alongside the mountains, farmland and river valleys.

The climate is generally humid subtropical. Although Arkansas does not border the Gulf of Mexico, its proximity to that warm body of water influences the state’s weather. The result is a setting where forests, waterways and cultivated land all play a visible role in daily life and travel.

Learn about Indigenous history and the state’s name

Indigenous peoples lived in Arkansas for thousands of years before European settlement. Among the peoples encountered by European explorers were the Caddo, Osage and Quapaw. The name Arkansas ultimately refers to the Quapaw, a Dhegiha Siouan-speaking people who settled in the area around the thirteenth century.

Arkansas was part of French Louisiana until Napoleon Bonaparte sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. It became the twenty-fifth state in 1836. Understanding these earlier histories is essential to seeing Arkansas as more than a collection of landscapes and towns.

Visit Little Rock and its historic landmarks

Little Rock, the state capital, is a center for government, business, transportation and culture. It also occupies a central place in the history of civil rights in the United States. The city and the state were major battlegrounds over school integration, and the events in Little Rock remain important to understanding Arkansas’s twentieth-century history.

Neywo’s Little Rock guide includes 51 narrated places. Among them are the Daisy Bates House, the Joseph Taylor Robinson House, the Tower Building of the Little Rock Arsenal and the Old State House. These sites connect the city’s political, civic and social history with places you can visit in person.

Understand the difficult history of the Delta and the Civil War

A plantation economy developed in southeastern Arkansas around cotton and relied heavily on enslaved African American labor. Arkansas later left the United States and joined the Confederate States during the Civil War. After returning to the Union, the state faced a declining cotton market and limited industrial investment.

Jim Crow laws imposed disenfranchisement and segregation on African Americans. Later, the civil rights movement brought Arkansas—especially Little Rock—into national focus through the struggle over school integration. These difficult chapters are central to the state’s history and should be part of any serious Arkansas travel guide.

See how Arkansas has changed

Arkansas still combines its agricultural past with a more diversified economy. Poultry, steel, aircraft, tourism and service industries now stand alongside farming and forestry. Little Rock remains a major center, while Northwest Arkansas—including Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers—has become another important area for population, education, culture and economic activity.

Bentonville has been the headquarters of Walmart since the 1960s, when the company was founded by Sam Walton. Fort Smith also has an important economic role, as well as historic sites connected with western expansion and the persecution of Native Americans.

The state has just over three million residents. Its modern identity comes from the coexistence of farms, forests, industry, cities and major commercial networks rather than from any single regional character.

Explore Arkansas with Neywo’s free audio guide

Neywo covers 3 Arkansas cities—Eureka Springs, Little Rock and Mena—with 4 walking tours and 56 narrated places in total. Narration is available in 11 languages.

The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Download Neywo to explore Arkansas’s towns and landmarks while keeping the history of each stop with you as you walk.